More suspicious E-mail, kinda long

[mleichtle]

I don't Know if i'm being a little nieve cause i never got a virus before so I don't know what to expect.

I recieved an e-mail that looked like my mother in law, so i opened it, the message was blank. Thats when i noticed it was a spam. Thought the name was just a coincedence. Then I get all these web site short cuts on my desk top and favorates, some kinda coffee and crap. I delete 'em but the next day they're back. I down loaded spybot and ran it. seemed to work, it found a bunch of stuff and got rid of it. as soon as its deleted I get a new spam e-mail with my father-in-laws name, deleted it. other than that i don't get any spam.

So i guess i'm right, some how i downloaded a spying program? or is it a virus? its scary that they can get these names and send e-mails with them, this cant be legal is it? but what really pisses me off is how can my pc down load this garbage without my permission or knowledge, and can i fix this? i run windows 98 se, maybe the newer edditions address this?

What mail program are you using.? was there an attachment that you opened or what? Sounds like it might have been some kind of embedded virus/porgram in either case you need to check for viruses not just spyware. And I'm assuming you don't have any virus software in place or if you do its not working well. You need to go here http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ have your computer scanned for a virus then go here http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.htm and get avg its free virus software. Doing just one is ok but I prefer to do both.

[osprey4]

Originally posted by mleichtle
I recieved an e-mail that looked like my mother in law....

AAAACCKKKK!!!!!! An e-mail that looked like your mother-in-law? And you didn't delete it?!?

[mleichtle]

Thanks for the links Rich. I did some surfing and found I was nieve. It looks like it was a virus.
I use outlook 97. there were no attachments that i could see. Could it be invisable or somthing?

[mleichtle]

I couldn't hit the delete botton when I was running from the office

...Don't blame ya for running. outlook isn't very secure when it comes to emails and viruses you'll definately need to get something that scans your mail. It could have been a none visible script or somehting I'm not up to speed on alot of that kinda info. I can build em but can't hack em. Maybe some of the others can make some good suggestions for ya. Hope it didn't cause any damage.

[mleichtle]

Well last night I rebooted and tried to run mcaffee, but it couldn't open. it said somthing about a .dll is missing or corrupt. rebooted a few more times, its running slow now and freezes occaisionaly. I ran spybot and it found 124 things, 2 said Klez worm. hit the fix button but not all could be deleted inluding 1 Klez worm. rebooted again and spy bot ran on bootup, but I wasn't sure if it got rid of the rest.

read up on this klez thing, theres a removal tool but I'll need to fix the .dll right? Will reformating wipe it out? I've heard horror stories were reformatting, and its still there don't know if they're true. I've been thinking of reformatting anyhow and cleaning this thing up but the wife needs some convincing. and its her computer.

[tmx468]

There are horror stories around, but none I know are true. When a virus takes hold of a system, it is often best to format and start from scratch (remembering any files of yours could be infected, and so copying them onto your new system will defeat the purpose of the re-install).
If you do re-format, any viruses will be wiped out. Just remember a few hints: use a different password, change the computer name, and maybe a different IP if it is static...